Welcome again to World Temporary, the primary version of 2026! Right now, we’re taking a look at threats of U.S. intervention world wide, South Korea’s budding friendship with China, and a sequence of cyberbullying convictions in France.
The Donroe Doctrine
In 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump typically touted his “no new wars” mantra as proof for why he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Inside days of the beginning of 2026, although, Trump took a tough proper flip: capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, threatening army motion in opposition to Colombia, warning of the autumn of Cuba, suggesting U.S. intervention in Iran, cautioning the administration in Mexico, and vowing to annex Greenland.
Pursuing what has been coined the “Donroe Doctrine,” after the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, Trump kicked off the brand new yr with a watch on U.S. intervention in resource-rich nations—a coverage that he has prioritized in his Nationwide Safety Technique.
Right here’s what you might want to learn about Trump’s present (and doubtlessly future) targets:
Venezuela
Maduro appeared in a New York courtroom on Monday for the primary time since his dramatic seizure by U.S. forces early Saturday morning. He has pleaded not responsible to federal drug-trafficking expenses and demanded that he be returned to Caracas, the place he maintains that he’s the rightful chief. (Unbiased vote displays say opposition determine Edmundo González rightfully received Venezuela’s disputed presidential election in 2024.)
Trump has since stated that the USA will “run the nation,” with some suggesting that both Secretary of State Marco Rubio or presidential advisor Stephen Miller will oversee post-Maduro operations. It’s unclear what U.S. involvement will appear to be, although the White Home has stated that it goals to take management of Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Specialists counsel that the USA’ monthslong strain marketing campaign in opposition to alleged narcoterrorists in Latin America was a thinly veiled smoke display for its regime-change ambitions. Whereas the White Home maintains that its actions in opposition to Maduro had been authorized, United Nations chief António Guterres warned on Saturday that they set a “harmful precedent,” and several other members of the U.N. Safety Council argued in an emergency session on Monday that the U.S. operation in Venezuela violated worldwide regulation.
Colombia
Trump threatened Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Sunday with U.S. army motion, saying: “Colombia could be very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and promoting it to the USA. And he’s not going to be doing it very lengthy, let me inform you.” Requested if the USA would launch an operation in opposition to Bogotá, Trump replied with, “It sounds good to me.”
The U.S. president has not offered specifics as to what such an operation would possibly appear to be. However Petro has warned of armed resistance if U.S. forces flip their consideration on Colombia. “Don’t threaten our sovereignty, as a result of you’ll awaken the Jaguar,” Petro posted on X final month. “Attacking our sovereignty is declaring warfare, don’t injury two centuries of diplomatic relations.”
Cuba
Following Maduro’s seize, Trump prompt that Cuba’s regime may equally collapse within the close to future. “I believe Cuba goes to be one thing we’ll find yourself speaking about as a result of Cuba is a failing nation proper now,” Trump stated on Saturday, with Rubio including, “If I lived in Havana, and I used to be within the authorities, I’d be involved—at the least a little bit bit.”
Nevertheless, Trump has since walked again a few of these feedback, telling reporters aboard Air Pressure One on Sunday that “I believe it’s simply going to fall. I don’t suppose we want any motion.”
Iran
A day earlier than the U.S. operation in Venezuela, Trump appeared to contemplate U.S. intervention in Iran in help of anti-regime protesters. “If Iran photographs and violently kills peaceable protesters, which is their customized, the USA of America will come to their rescue,” he posted on Reality Social. In response, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that “all American facilities and forces throughout the complete area might be official targets for us in response to any potential adventurism.”
U.S. forces struck three Iranian nuclear websites in a brazen operation final June through the 12-day Israel-Iran battle, and Trump has beforehand threatened Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian regime beneath President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Mexico
In the case of tackling drug cartels, Mexico is one in every of Trump’s prime targets. “Mexico has to get their act collectively, as a result of they’re [drugs are] pouring via Mexico, and we’re going to need to do one thing,” Trump stated aboard Air Pressure One on Sunday after sharing an analogous sentiment on Fox & Mates.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned Trump’s most up-to-date threats on Monday. “We categorically reject intervention within the inner affairs of different nations,” she stated. “The historical past of Latin America is obvious and compelling: Intervention has by no means introduced democracy, by no means generated well-being, nor lasting stability.”
Greenland
All through 2025, the Trump administration expressed curiosity in buying Greenland, a resource-rich, strategically situated territory of Denmark. Regardless of Copenhagen being a NATO ally, Trump has not dominated out utilizing army pressure or financial coercion to attain this purpose. “We do want Greenland, completely,” Trump instructed the Atlantic on Sunday. “We want it for protection.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen urged European powers on Monday to take Trump’s threats severely, including that “if the USA assaults one other NATO nation, the whole lot stops.”
Right now’s Most Learn
The World This Week
Tuesday, Jan. 6: The Group of American States’ Everlasting Council meets to debate the scenario in Venezuela.
Wednesday, Jan. 7: Pope Leo begins a rare two-day consistory of cardinals.
Thursday, Jan. 8: Amman hosts the European Union-Jordan summit.
Sunday, Jan. 11: Benin holds parliamentary elections.
Myanmar holds the second section of its common election.
Monday, Jan. 12: Hong Kong’s Excessive Court docket holds a presentencing listening to for pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai.
The Worldwide Court docket of Justice holds hearings on genocide allegations in opposition to Myanmar.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki begins a two-day go to to the UK.
What We’re Following
A burgeoning friendship. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung signaled a “new section” in Seoul’s relationship with Beijing on Monday throughout a four-day state go to to China, including that 2026 would be the first yr of a “full-scale restoration of Korea-China relations.” The summit, throughout which Lee met with Chinese language President Xi Jinping, indicators each nations’ efforts to bolster their alliances within the face of regional adversaries.
For Beijing, that opposition comes from Tokyo. For the reason that inauguration of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in October 2025, variations in coverage over Taiwan have sparked a serious diplomatic blowout between China and Japan in addition to threats of army motion. Xi has since emphasised China’s shared historical past with South Korea throughout World Battle II, when each nations fought Japan, to curry favor with Seoul.
As for South Korea, one of many summit’s priorities is to counter Pyongyang. Simply hours earlier than Lee arrived in China, North Korea launched a number of ballistic missiles, together with what it claimed to be hypersonic missiles, into the ocean. This was its first such launch since November. South Korea’s Protection Ministry referred to as the assessments a violation of U.N. Safety Council resolutions and urged Pyongyang to reply to its push to restart peace talks.
Responsible of cyberbullying. A Paris courtroom convicted 10 folks on Monday for cyberbullying French first woman Brigitte Macron. The defendants, eight males and two girls whose ages vary from 41 to 65, had been discovered responsible of spreading false on-line claims about Macron’s gender, together with that she was transgender, and equating the 24-year age hole between her and her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, to pedophilia.
These feedback had been “significantly degrading, insulting, and malicious,” the courtroom dominated, pointing to the “cumulative dangerous results” that they’d on the primary woman. The ten defendants had been sentenced to collectively pay a advantageous of $11,675 for ethical injury and are required to attend cyberbullying consciousness coaching. Different sentences had been decided primarily based on the severity of every particular person’s on-line posts, with the harshest receiving a six-month jail time period.
Important infrastructure assaults. In a single day Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Kyiv area early Monday marked what seems to be the warfare’s first fatalities of 2026. Not less than two folks had been killed, and several other properties and significant infrastructure had been broken, together with a working medical facility in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi district. In keeping with Kyiv Oblast Gov. Mykola Kalashnyk, pockets of the area had been left with out energy.
Over the course of Russia’s practically four-year warfare in opposition to Ukraine, Moscow has routinely focused the nation’s power sector in an effort to freeze Ukraine into submission. That features assaults on its communications grid and oil refineries throughout the latest brutal winter. The West has beforehand responded by imposing sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil corporations, Rosneft and Lukoil—to devastating impact. However such strain has up to now didn’t pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating desk.
Kyiv’s Western allies will convene in Paris on Tuesday for a session of the “coalition of the keen,” a bunch of greater than 30 nations dedicated to Ukraine’s protection, throughout which they plan on discussing postwar safety ensures for Kyiv.
Odds and Ends
Prepare for some costly sushi. The operator of widespread Japanese restaurant chain Sushi Zanmai bid $3.24 million on Monday for a single bluefin tuna. Weighing 535 kilos, the price of the prized catch was the highest-ever worth paid at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market’s annual start-of-year public sale—superseding the earlier report of $2.1 million paid in 2019. “I haven’t sampled it but, but it surely’s obtained to be scrumptious,” the corporate’s proprietor, Kiyoshi Kimura, stated. “However after I see a handsome tuna, I can’t resist.”
